In my original post, I further stated Romes practice of accomodating European paganism by merging its divinities with saints made icon veneration critical to its mission (sometimes as much a survival as an ecclesiastical matter,) and that the greater rarity of polytheism in Byzantium could only make that another bone of contention. That is mainly conjecture on my part though, not documented fact.

The point, however, was that two centuries before the Great Schisms formal declaration, as all contributing factors made it de facto reality, Byzantine emperors spent a half century declaring an accepted and celebrated Roman practice heresy, if not idolatry. How could that not further strain an already tortured relationship? My HS world history textbook taught us it did, but you can always write them a correction after editing the below link.